IMC 2010: Sessions
Session 1128: Western Perceptions of Islamic Culture
Wednesday 14 July 2010, 11.15-12.45
| Sponsor: | Centre for Medieval & Renaissance Studies, Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München / Humboldt Foundation |
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| Organiser: | Pavel Blažek, Filosofický ústav, Akademie vĕd České Republiky, Praha |
| Moderator/Chair: | Alexander Fidora, Departament de Ciències de l'Antiguitat i de l'Edat Mitjana, Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona |
| Paper 1128-a | 'The wives of the Saracenes': Perceptions of Islamic Polygamy in Medieval Western Travel Literature (Language: English) Index terms: Islamic and Arabic Studies, Mentalities, Sexuality, Women's Studies |
| Paper 1128-b | 'Allas, unto the Barbre nacioun!': Perceptions of 'Heathens' in Chaucer's Canterbury Tales (Language: English) Index terms: Language and Literature - Old English, Pagan Religions |
| Paper 1128-c | 'So grete noyse that cristinemen al destourbed were': The Imagination of Islamic Instruments in Western Sources (Language: English) Index terms: Music, Pagan Religions |
| Abstract | Western views of Islam in the Middle Ages (to use the words of the title of Richard Southern's by now classic book published in 1962) have attracted in the past decades much scholarly interest. The session will examine, in an interdisciplinary approach, three largely neglected aspects of the medieval perception of Islam and Islamic culture: The reactions of western Christian travellers to Islamic polygamy, Chaucer's view of Islam and the perceptions, during the crusades, of Islamic instruments and military music. |